I have chosen two recent bodies of work to exhibit this Fall - the cardboard paintings are inspired by nostalgic objects from my (and your?) teen years. These humorous paintings include references to music, food and other forms of entertainment.The other body of work is printmaking, specifically linocuts and etchings.The prints themes explore our mortality, politics and collective anxiety.

I currently live in Glenside, Pa, right outside of Philly. I’ve lived in a variety of places over my lifetime including Rome, Italy, Chicago and New Orleans. My art studio is in our home down in the finished basement. I love having the studio so accessible because I can go down to work for just a few minutes if needed or spend hours down there. Though I have my MFA painting I am also a public high school art teacher. I kind of entered teaching through the side door if you will. I taught at art museums and private schools in New Orleans and Chicago until eventually getting National Board Certified. I’ve been teaching at my old high school now for 21 years. Over the years I’ve shown in a variety of spaces, some traditional and others alternative. I’ve displayed and sold my work many times at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks in Philly. I recently had a solo exhibit at Stonehill College in MA and in a therapist’s office locally in Wyndmoor. I’ve also created masks and sets for local theatres.

I believe my authentic creative life really started after I completed Graduate School and moved to New Orleans on a whim. After spending a decade in New Orleans I developed a love for making and wearing large scale masks. I made these heads for both Mardi Gras and Halloween. And though I left New Orleans over 25 years ago I still create a mask or sculpture for my Halloween costume every year. I have always continued to draw and paint during this time but exploring three dimensional work really opened up another side of my art. I believe sculpture allowed me to explore humor, performance and color in a different manner than my two dimensional works. This led me to working in clay and found objects and also pushed me to become a more experimental and open artist. Over time this N’awlins experience blurred the boundaries between artistic mediums and subject matter. I am just as equally interested in depicting the pathos of humanity as exploring something comic and silly.

Though I studied Painting, my artistic practice includes a variety of media such as drawing, printmaking, sculpture, mask making, ceramics, animation. If I had to pick a favorite medium it would probably be ink because of its directness and illustrative quality. I also have really gotten working in ceramics over the past 5 years or so. I love the versatility of clay and its surface quality. Though I try to avoid a tedious process this does not mean I want to present simple images. I hope the viewer will often discover double meanings, hidden details and surprising outcomes within each artwork. I am most interested in artists and artwork that explores humor and existential angst in their work. Some of these would include Goya, Philip Guston, Jean Dubuffet, Kiki Smith and many more. Other influences include Mad magazine, doodling during 7th grade math class, rock and roll and teenage wet dreams.Themes in the work include sex, love, childhood, music, gluttony and the ephemeral. Recent topics include political satire and mortality musings.